The post-Budget row over tax relief for charitable giving has obscured the fact that there are many tax reliefs given for profitable activities without any consideration for the public benefit of the activities being effectively subsidised. Around £40bn a year of relief against income or capital gains tax goes to support pension saving, ISAs and protect individual gains from the sale of residential property. In times of austerity shouldn’t we be looking more closely at how this money is used? Could the Government use the policy leverage created by such subsidies to encourage more responsible behaviour in the financial sector that benefits the taxpayer as well as the individual investor?

Britain’s economy before the credit crunch was based on high borrowing to fuel increasing consumption which drove economic growth. As individuals we didn’t save enough for our own financial security, and as a country, we haven’t invested enough in our economic future. To face the long term challenges to our economic prosperity like an ageing population or climate change, we will need a more resilient economy that has far stronger foundations of savings and investment.

So what happens to the money that we combine with the tax subsidy in order to save for the future?

Well, we know that pension funds and institutional investors place much of this in the stock market, but the evidence shows that more and more of this capital is used for high frequency trading rather than long term investing. Andy Haldane of the Bank of England is one high profile regulator who is very concerned with this development. Cash placed in ISAs earns a very low rate of interest and, in as much that these funds bolster bank balance sheets and help fund lending to the economy, we also know that the majority of such lending actually funds property loans and financial speculation. Less than 20 per cent of UK bank lending goes to the productive economy of growing businesses. Finally we know that fees and charges in the investment and banking sectors are notoriously opaque, and competition is far from perfect.

So there is an understandable lack of trust in the finance sector, yet the government has to find a way to convince the public not just to save more, but channel those savings into productive investment. One way to do this is for the government to be more explicit about encouraging savings and investments that apply responsibility criteria and enhance social and environmental well being, as well as financial returns. Moreover, it should be using the existing subsidies to enforce this principle. In an era where all subsidy has to be made to work harder for the public interest, there should be a principle that, in return for tax relief, savers and investors should be able to demonstrate a contribution to the public good. This will not be easy to do, but there is a growing set of voluntary standards and codes of practice which investment organisations can apply to demonstrate they are taking a responsible approach, looking a long term interests, not just short term profits.

In my recent report for Green Alliance, Saving for a sustainable future[3], I make the case for these principles to be used in public policy and set out a few ways in which it could be applied:

Pension tax relief could be made conditional on responsible standards being applied.

Banks could only be able to offer tax-free Cash ISA accounts if they could demonstrate responsible and transparent lending practices.

Capital gains tax relief for the sale of a residential property could be made conditional on certain energy efficiency improvements being made to the building.

There is political consensus on the need to rebalance our economy and reshape British capitalism in way that better incorporates the values of society. Applying these ideas to existing taxpayer subsidies is a good start.